One of the more frustrating aspects to the Waco “Twin Peaks” biker shooting story is the lack of photographic references to aid in a full understanding of the proximity of all the characters, suspects and witnesses involved.
However, after reviewing hundreds of media articles showing bits and pieces of the event we finally have some optical references for a story as it is told.
But before going to that aspect another controversial point should be expressed.
No-one here is saying the police, in totality, did anything wrong. Conversely, it would be unfair to think EVERYONE, who were rounded up as 170 ‘conspiracy suspects’ and who were detained in the aftermath, is guilty of murder.
There are many concerning aspects which need sunlight regarding the immediate police response to whatever caused the spark of violence. Similarly, there are concerning aspects about the wholesale arrest of ‘bikers’, or unaffiliated motorcycle riders, purely due to their proximity to a violent event they did not participate in.
Hopefully, anyone vested in the interests of lawful due process (ie. everyone) would be concerned with ‘wholesale roundups’.
Think about the following analogy.
Remember when the two Ferguson Police Officers were shot while standing post outside their police department?
Imagine the response from the community, national media, and the larger U.S. population if the riot clad police had rushed across the street and arrested everyone in the vicinity; rounding up the crowd along West Florissant Ave., from where the shots originated.
Imagine those Ferguson protesters being rounded up, taken to a convention center for processing, and then held on million dollar bonds while the police began their investigation into who did what, where and when.
Sure there are differences; and to avoid semantics and a litany of inbound protestations, I am not trying to equivocate the shooting of police in Ferguson to the shooting in Waco Texas. I’m simply asking readers to pause and contemplate the aspect of proximity arrest, or guilt by association, against the backdrop of individual due process.
We firmly stand on the principle that our legal system is based on a premise that: “it is better to let 100 guilty men go free, than to convict a singular innocent man wrongly“.
In Waco Texas, currently, this legal principle has been turned on its head.
Amid the 170 arrested motorcycle riders, there are bound to be many, perhaps dozens, who will have absolutely no charges brought against them because there simply is no justifiable evidence to support their continued incarceration.
Yet they remain sitting in jail, right now.
One attorney is trying to change that by filing motions on behalf of two of the accused (Link Here). Whether he succeeds or not is unknown. However, the basic tenet behind his motion(s) is fundamentally solid.
No American who believes in ‘due process’ should be applauding the continued incarceration of the transparently innocent; even if that innocent is merely one hidden amid a group of 170.
As a nation of free people, ruled by laws, conceived around the principle that liberty is the most valued disposition, all of us should be worried about the approach being taken by the Waco judiciary.
There but for the grace of God – and a decision to eat chicken wings in the wrong place at the wrong time, while selecting a seemingly unappreciated mode of transportation – go I.
I digress.
To our central discussion point of what took place:
Several days ago, May 20th, we received an email from a distraught family member of one of the incarcerated. The email contained an outline of a brief discussion the writer had with her husband, who was a witness to part of the events, and arrested in the aftermath.
Because we could not verify nor vet properly the information, we tabbed it and tucked it away for reference.
We still cannot substantiate the full content. However, we have been able to locate visual information which does align with the general gist of the story as shared. Visual information that was not known to the sender, and unknown to us as we continued to review hundreds of stories, links, pictures and scour the little information that is still surfacing on the local Texas media sites.
Additionally, nothing has surfaced which refutes or disputes the story as it was shared.
In very short form the version shared was of a biker who did not belong to an organized motorcycle club but who saw a flyer for a “legislative affairs discussion event which outlines current regulatory policy as it relates to motorcycle riders” at a local bike shop.
So he decides to attend and see what it was about, whether it would be anything of interest, and what topics of legislative discussion would relate specifically to motorcycle riders.
He arrived at the venue moments before the shooting took place, and not knowing anyone decided to walk in the front door. Walking past the registration table set up under a portable canopy, when he first heard gunshots.
Not knowing what to do he froze in place, heard more shots, and the sound of bullets he perceived as generally whistling by his vicinity. He ran back toward his bike, deciding it was safer to lay in the grass. He had no idea what was going on behind him when he reached the grass, and so he crouched down and headed for cover near a Dark Blue SUV.
When he reached the SUV, he heard gunshots from the area he was now in. He saw what he later described as a SWAT officer, or police officer of some form, in a firing position, on the other side of the SUV; and so he thought he had put himself in a dangerous proximity to fire.
He made the decision to jump into the grass several yards away, and behind the SUV. There he laid on his stomach with his head down. After several moments of silence he heard the command to ‘stay down’, and not knowing if the command was directed to him, to everyone, or to anyone specifically, he just decided to remain laying there.
Approximately 30 minutes later a police officer came and took him back toward the Twin Peaks parking lot into a police vehicle. He was cuffed without further explanation and after approximately an hour in the back of the vehicle was driven to the convention center.
There he remained quietly, not wanting to talk to anyone; for several more hours until he, along with a host of others, were transferred to jail. He was permitted one monitored phone call to his wife on the 3rd day (Tuesday May 19th) where he told her what happened and asked for help.
This person thought (wrongly) he was only going to be questioned by LEO as a possible witness to the events, and then released. It was described, as written, as “living a nightmare”.
Again, we have no way to verify, validate, or authenticate this story. Nor do we wish to.
Those of you who know the research we do, fully understand why we remain intentionally detached from people contained inside the stories we research. The truth has no agenda, and it is entirely more valuable for objectivity and truth finding when you hold no disposition as to the outcome where truth is found.
However, that said – this entire SWAT fire aspect is now beginning to surface.
Here are some general pictures of the vicinity, along with my own definitions for later reference.
This is the front entrance ↑ of the Twin Peaks building (front doors slightly off picture on left) along with the portable canopy and registration table as it was described. –click to enlarge– Note the don Carlos restaurant on right. Notice the grassy area between the police car and the front of the building. Two important things to also note: ♦ First notice how the patio wraps around the building from front toward the back. ♦ Second, notice the white pickup truck on the lower right. That is the pickup truck from this next image:
Here is another picture of the front ↓:
The front doors ↑ are more clear, and the size of the patio which wraps the building is more evident. Again you can reference the registration canopy.
Here’s another with SWAT unit members and investigators ↓:
Now, here is an aerial picture of the back ↓:
Again, click to enlarge as needed. From this overhead perspective (the back looking toward the front). Notice the White Pickup (center top). Notice the location of Don Carlos (left). Notice the grassy area in the front (top). AND importantly => Notice the location of the SWAT MRAP (far left behind Don Carlos).
Here is a picture of the side (from the perspective of being above Don Carlos). Notice again the white pickup truck. Notice again the length of the patio (from the front, left, toward the rear, right). Notice the base of the Twin Peaks sign (looks like a phone pole on left)
If you click on this image (above) and enlarge – you will also see bullet impacts to the front of the vehicles parked rear in, and impacts in the rear of the vehicles parked nose in.
Here is a close up picture of the side from street level (zoomed) ↓:
Notice the headlights are on indicating little time to respond (urgent dismount, from the riders).
Now, with a general grasp of the geography being discussed, remember back to the story as shared.
Look closely at this image:
Do you see the SUV on the left. Also look at this enlarged and zoomed image of the same picture:
Some of those evidence cones are clearly marking shell casings. Possible SWAT/LEO sniper location. Notice also that’s a heck of a long rapid fire shot, even with training.
Now check out this picture from a slightly modified perspective (click to enlarge):
For perspective ↑ : Notice the back end of the white Pickup truck (lower right corner). Notice the Canopy (lower left). But look closely in the grass in the image above. Enlarged below ↓:
Again, what appear to be evidence markers, in an area a considerable distance from the restaurant indicating possible shell casings from SWAT/LEO sniper fire.
Against the backdrop of the witness story as shared, the visible locations as indicated make sense from the perspective of the witness.
Considering the known firing positions, evidenced by the location of shell casing markers; and considering the location of SWAT equipment, evidenced by MRAP; A triangulation of fire is visibly noted.
In this video you can see uniformed Waco PD officers returning fire from the Don Carlos parking lot. Essentially, the SWAT MRAP would be off screen right behind the building and behind their firing location:
We know from Spox Swanton that 22 officers were pre-positioned prior to the event; including: 10 members of Waco PD SWAT, 2 Sergeants, 1 rookie, and an Asst. Police Chief.
![waco 26 SWAT](https://6b8e213852.nxcli.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/waco-26-swat.jpg)
None of this proves the story of the witness as told – though it does align. However, neither does it disprove the story. Heck, nothing is provable or disprovable with current information, and we all note the Waco PD are in no hurry to provide updates.
Lastly, and this might be the most important aspect that EVERYONE is overlooking, amid the pictures we have been able to research and find, you’ll note that in every single one of them there’s only THREE or FOUR visible dead bodies – yet nine people were killed.
Waco PD Spokesperson W. Patrick Swanton has said nine people were killed; one of those died in the hospital – that leaves 8 people who were killed on the scene. Yet we only see 3 or four bodies in all of the visible pictures.
♦ Jesus Delgado Rodriguez, 65, died of gunshot wounds of the head and trunk.
♦ Jacob Lee Rhyne, 39, died of gunshot wounds to the neck.
♦ Richard Vincent Kirshner, Jr., 47, died of gunshot wounds but the report did not specify where he was shot.
♦ Richard Matthew Jordan, III, 31, died of gunshot wounds to the head.
♦ Wayne Lee Campbell, 43, died of gunshot wounds to the head and trunk.
♦ Daniel Raymond Boyett, 44, died of gunshot wounds to the head.
♦ Matthew Mark Smith, 27, died of gunshot wounds to the trunk
♦ Manuel Issac Rodriguez, 40, died of gunshot wounds but the report did not specify where he was shot.
♦ And Charles Wayne Russell, 46, died of gunshot wounds to the chest.
Waco PD Spokesperson W. Patrick Swanton said: “three were killed in the parking lot, one body was found dragged behind the building, and four were killed in the front of the restaurant“.
Meaning it is entirely possible those four were killed “on the porch/patio” of Twin Peaks – which is not coincidentally the location where CCTV cameras are located and AP reporters (who watched the video) have stated only one person displayed a firearm on that patio.
It is therefore entirely possible that four people were killed as a result of their proximity being the backdrop of the downrange fire from the positioned police department who missed their parking lot target(s). Four bodies on the porch/patio, hence we cannot see them in any pictures, who could very likely be completely innocent victims of inbound gunfire from the police department.
Waco PD are withholding the CCTV video from Twin Peaks and no media is putting pressure upon them to release it. Will that video show four people shot as they tried to get into the safe cover of the restaurant interior?
UPDATE 5/27/15 2:00pm: We just received confirmation that Don Carlos has a CCTV camera at their vestibule (front door) which, as a consequence to the camera angle, is directly aimed at the Twin Peaks side parking lot. The camera is to the left as you walk in the front door.
Is the issue of unintentional victims why the Waco PD has put so much media emphasis on the “weapons” they discovered inside the building itself? Because they need a narrative of ‘possible risk’?
BREAKING: Waco police now say they've found as many as 1000 weapons at Twin Peaks, including an AK-47. Many were hidden in toilets, food.
— KWTX News 10 (@kwtx) May 20, 2015
Are those four dead people victims of police fire? Is that why this entire event does not pass the sniff test, and it appeared from the outset the Waco PD were trying desperately to get out ahead of the story?
Only time will tell, and absent of a seriously critical media we are left to scour scant resources for what information we can piece together. So why do this?
….Because, beside the growing probability there are innocent victims, there are also 170 people out of work, missing paychecks, away from their families, and they have lost their freedom and liberty -quite possibly out of paranoia on behalf of the police department- and some of them, even if only one amid the 170, will be found to be transparently innocent.
That ONE person could just as easily be YOU or ME….
….. if we happen to go to the wrong place, at the wrong time, and find ourselves surrounded with the wrong people. Unfortunately, I doubt either of us will be afforded the benefit of a politically correct police department afraid to cross the street.
Your thoughts?
♦ Waco Research Thread 1 – The initial Shooting As Reported
♦ Waco Research Thread 2 – LEO Affidavits Inconsistent With Spokesperson Claims
♦ Waco Research Thread 3 – The Waco Police Narrative Continues To Evolve
♦ Waco Research Thread 4 – CCTV Video Refutes Original 3 Days of Police Claims
♦ Waco Research Thread 5 – Listen to the Waco PD Radio Traffic
♦ Waco Research Thread 6 – 14 Officers Were Shooting – Report: “Thousands of rounds”
♦ Waco Research Thread 7 – Washington Post eye-witness account
♦ Waco Research Thread 8 – The Fill-in-the-blank Probable Cause Affidavit